The invention relates to conductive flaky pigments for which a flaky substrate has been coated with an electrically conductive layer.
In many areas of industry there is a demand for conductive pigments, for example, for producing electrically conductive, antistatic or electromagnetically shielding plastics, antistatic polymers, paints, coatings, fibers, moldings or the like.
To produce conductive pigments having black or grey shades or metallic effects, large amounts of conductive carbon black are used. In addition, there are a number of metals and oxidic materials, for example, antimony-doped tin dioxide or tin-doped indium oxide, which can be used as such or else as coatings on other pigments or fillers.
However, the pigments thus obtained usually have conductivity values which do not meet the high requirements. Antimony-doped tin dioxide or other conductive metal oxide materials are frequently only of limited usefulness on account of their high specific density. Blends with plastics frequently make the components too heavy, depending on the mixing ratio. For this reason, it would be desirable to have lightweight, conductive pigments, especially in colors other than black.
There is also a demand for pearl luster pigments of improved conductivity.